🥃 Fruit spirit

Fruit spirit is a spirit drink made only by fermenting and distilling fresh, fleshy fruit, berries or vegetables, or their must. In the EU it is category 9: at least 37.5% vol., with no added alcohol, flavourings or colourings. Kirsch, plum spirit, Williams pear spirit and Hungarian pálinka all belong here.

The fruit is fermented with or without its stones and then distilled; every distillation stays below 86% vol. so that the aroma and taste come from the raw material. Volatile substances must reach at least 200 g per hectolitre of pure alcohol. Methanol may reach 1,000 g/hl, 1,200 for apples, plums, raspberries or ordinary pears, and 1,350 for quince, Williams pears, blackcurrants or rowanberries. Stone-fruit spirits may contain no more than 7 g/hl of hydrocyanic acid.

The legal name is the word “spirit” with the name of the fruit, or “wasser” with it, as in Kirschwasser. Special names exist too: kirsch for cherries, plum, quetsch or slivovitz for plums, mirabelle, and Obstler when at least 85% of the mash comes from apples or pears. Several fruits distilled together give “fruit spirit”.

The EU register eAmbrosia lists 59 geographical indications in this category: 15 in Italy, 14 in Hungary plus Pálinka shared with Austria, 8 in Germany and 6 in France. Schwarzwälder Kirschwasser and Kirsch d'Alsace have been protected since 1989.

Why it matters to you. Colouring fruit spirit is forbidden: caramel may be added only if the spirit spent at least a year in contact with wood. Sugar is capped at 18 g/l. “Williams” on the label guarantees pears of that variety. WHO: there is no safe level of alcohol.